I invite you to turn to the book of Romans chapter 12. We thank God for his great love as we sung that wonderful hymn, the love of God for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. In Jesus we have eternal life. We'll live forever with the Lord beyond this life. But what about now? Well, before the Lord comes and gets us and takes us home, before we live forever, we are to live for him. And that's what we're looking at in this passage here in Romans 12, because we're looking at a practical section. We've been looking at doctrine of the first 11 chapters, talking about justification by faith. We're saved by faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. But now we're looking at more practical some duties for the believer and it begins in that very first verse we saw a few weeks ago. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. It's your spiritual worship. And so we consider all the mercies of God. God's been merciful to us. God did not have to send Jesus. He did not have to save us. But aren't you so glad of his wonderful mercy to save us and to speak to us and speak to our hearts. And so we come to this practical part and we're coming now to the part about love in verse nine. We want to read verse nine through 13. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints. And seek to show hospitality. Now, God is at work in us, and the reason why he's doing that, he saved us. But Paul said in Philippians 2 that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. That doesn't mean we're working to get saved. But because we are saved by the grace of God, we are his workmanship created on two good works. It is God who works in us to accomplish his will and his purpose. And to help us to do that, he's placed us into the local church. And we saw that last time about spiritual gifts. There is the gift of prophecy, the gift of teaching, the gift of exhortation, the gift of service and ministry. And all of that is given the purpose for the edification of the church, to help us to grow up, to be mature, to be Christ-like, and to be a light in a dark world, a hostile world, and to give the gospel to those who don't know the Lord. Now, here in verses nine, all the way to the end of the chapter is another section here. And this is a, you might call it a grocery list of commands, some injunctions, some principles. And you might as we go through this, you say, well, this might, this doesn't seem too exciting. Well, really it's things that we know about, and we've heard about these things, but we need to be reminded. We need to grow in all of these traits and actually they're distinguishing marks of a true Christian. And the first one on the list in verse nine is the subject of love. So what I want us to do now is look at verse nine and consider a general description of love. And then verses 10 through 13, let's talk about how love works, the function of love. We'll begin there in verse nine. It says, let love be without dissimilation. And that means without hypocrisy. It means to be sincere. It means to be genuine. The word dissimilation, the Greek word there is really, it's the word without hypocrisy. and without a mask. The Greeks were known for their theaters and they would get on stage and they would have these masks in front of them to play a certain role. And then when they come off a stage, you take the mask off. When it comes to the love of God in our hearts and our interaction with one another, he says, let love be sincere, let love be genuine. That is, it's to be without a mask. Take the mask off and be real. And I'm not talking about you wearing masks today because of the COVID. I thought that might be your thought today when I was preparing this message, but I'm gonna talk about that. We're talking about love here and the word love in verse nine is God's kind of love. The Greek word is agape. It's God's kind of love. And really to know this love and to really to experience it and really to express it as we should, it requires that we know God. It requires one to be saved. Bible tells us in 1st John who John talks a whole lot about love in his epistle there in 1st John Chapter 4 and he says this in verse verse 7. He said beloved. Let us love one another For love is from God and whoever love has been born of God and knows God Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is Love. And there's no way that you know this kind of love. I know human beings. God has given the human beings, even the unregenerate, the capacity to love on a human level. But this is God's kind of love, and it comes because we've been saved, and God puts in us the Holy Spirit. And we saw back there, when you back up to chapter 5 of Romans, in chapter 5 and verse 5, He says this about love. He says, hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us. And so it's not of us. And it's God's kind of love that's been given to us by the new birth and through the power of the Holy Spirit. And we see that love demonstrated when God gave his son for God so loved that he gave, right? And Romans five again in verse eight tells us there that, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's how God demonstrated his love on our behalf. And Paul speaks of his great love in that Ephesian letter, Ephesians 2 and 4, he says, but God being rich in mercy, and it says, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, and he made us alive together with Christ, for by grace are you saved. So we see the love of God when you see how God gave his son on our behalf. Now, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, this love is an overarching principle. I mean, it's that which governs our whole Christian experience. If it's not there, anything else, it just falls flat. And we won't read that chapter, but you've read, no doubt, the love chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 where Paul talks about if I if I can give if I give my body to be burned if I don't have love it means nothing and if I give all everything to to help people if I do all these wonderful things but if it's not motivated and the source of that is not the love of God it's nothing it's the greatest thing and so here we see very important here the love of God in our heart actually it's a signpost that points people to God. And Jesus said this in John 13. He says, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another. Now, when you see Christians displaying love for one another, that is the evidence to a lost world that they have something that is unique. You don't find it in the world. By this shall I know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another. Very, very important. Now someone asked Jesus this question about the great commandment and Matthew chapter 22 and they came up to him and they were asking what the great commandment is and here's what he said. He said, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Here's what Jesus said. He said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And then the second one is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole law. Love God and love your neighbor. That's the great commandment. And so this is where it gets down to be real practical here. You might say it's where the rubber meets the road. This is where we all live, right? We have neighbors. And you say, well, my neighbor's about five miles away or whatever. You know, a neighbor is anyone who's in need. and we fail to show the love of Jesus to them. You know, we're not doing what we ought to do. And so Donald Barnhouse said this about the gospel. You know, you have a Bible and it's got the gospel message and some Bibles are covered up with seal skin, waterproof kind of a covering. Some has Morocco leather covering and cloth covering. Here's what he said. Men may not read the gospel in seal skin or the gospel in Morocco or the gospel in cloth covers, but they can't get away from the gospel in shoe leather. That's practical Christianity. The way we walk, the way we deal with each other, the way we respond to situations, people are looking at us. And I know one thing, there's people looking at me at prison all the time, especially those who are incarcerated there. They're there for several years. They've seen me for quite some time. And I have to be honest with you, there are some times. And when I say I have to be honest with you, I have to be honest with you all the time, right? I have more than once I've gone to an inmate and apologized because I did not respond in a situation as I should. And maybe my temper shows a little bit. I don't know what you will call how a temper to go, but listen I believe it the way a preacher said one time. I've never lost my temper. I still got it and Sometimes we shows, but you know anyway our interaction with people now. Here's what here's what Paul says in Chapter 13 of Romans and Romans chapter 13 and verse 10 here's what he says about love he says Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. That's it. So that's all we must focus on. That's why Paul I believe begins in this long list is this thing about love and we must concentrate on that. But there's a second thing I want you to think about love is this. Not only is love sincere, but secondly, love is discriminating. Now, I know people say, well, you're not supposed to discriminate. We're not talking about that. God loves all people. He loves them red and yellow, black and white. They are all what? Precious in His sight. But love is discriminating in this sense. In verse 9, he says, Love is sincere, it's genuine. But he says, abhor what is evil. Hold fast or cleave to what is good. Now, what's he talking about here? Well, we talk about abhor evil. That doesn't mean that you're just kind of apathetic about it. Well, you know, it's not my cup of tea and that's not the way I, I just kind of go for those kinds of things. And I'm, it's not to be insensitive, but it's to have a strong emotion attitude about evil, abhor it, detest it. It's something that you are strongly against because God is against all evil. And that's what we're looking at here. And God hates wickedness. We saw in our passage in our reading this morning, Psalms five, God hates even workers of iniquity. That might be a hard thing for people to think about, but you know, you've had, I know you've, you may have heard this. God loves a sinner, but he hates the sin. But here's what happens. If that sinner never repents and never comes to Christ, he is so identified with his sin, and then if he dies without Jesus, he goes to hell, and hell is a dumping ground of God's wrath and all that God hates. And so God hates the workers of iniquity because He sees them in hell, those who never come to Him, those who never respond, those who never repent. And that's why God can say that. Listen to what, in Proverbs 6, what six things God hates. Proverbs 6 and verse 16, it says this, there are six things that the Lord hates. Seven are an abomination to him. Number one, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, a feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. You can talk about every one of those things. That's a big subject right there. But God hates sin. Very, very serious here. And we need to look at that today more than ever because we're living in a time and a culture that wants to turn things right that are wrong and wrong that is right and they're changing the definitions of everything. Here's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9. Do you not know? He asks this question. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. But such were some of you." That's what he said. He said, that's what some of you were. He said, such were some of you, but you were washed, You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. Now, today you read that verse and the first thing that jumps out, people will think of that word homosexuality. And the King James, he used the word I think effeminate. He's talking about the practice of homosexuality. It is a sin. Some people says it's an alternative lifestyle. It's not an alternative lifestyle. It is a wicked lifestyle. God loves sinners. Thank God there are those who have practiced homosexuality and have come to Christ, and they've been washed, they've been cleaned, they've been sanctified, they've been justified by the Spirit of God. but make it very clear and the church should make it very clear from the pulpit and every Christian needs to see the scriptures. God hates sin. Sin, all kinds of wickedness. Charles Spurgeon back in the 1800s, he said this about, he said concerning homosexuality, here's what he said. Concerning homosexuality, this once brought hell out of heaven on Sodom. All you need to do is read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what God thinks about homosexuality. It is wickedness. And some say, well, you know, what about these other sins? You can spend all day hammering every one of them, but I think the church of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to stand up very clearly and make sure they nail this nail down, nail it down good. According to the Bible, it is sin. It is wrong. So I said, well, what about some, some, they have a, they have a tendency like that. And well, they need to get counsel. They need to be prayed for. They need to be talked with lovingly, lovingly, not being disrespectful to someone and encourage them. And there are many people who have walked away from that lifestyle. But the reason why people don't walk away from sin, because man today loves his sin. and he does not want to be rebuked by the Lord. So he says, abhor it. Abhor it. You know, the world today is trying to change things that are wrong and say they're okay. I was reading just a little innocent story to one of our granddaughters the other night. I don't know if you've heard this story. It's called Three Little Pigs. You know, in that story, there's a character, and we call him the Big Bad Wolf. Okay, you're familiar with it. You know, you got one pig that builds this little house out of straw and a wolf blows it away and one of them sticks and blows it away. I read this story when I first, and this is kind of a little new addition. Do you know they have changed that story? The original story that I learned when I grew up, that bad wolf had a bad ending. He tried to go down the chimney of the little pig that had the brick house and he found his fate in a big huge bowl of boiling water and he became stew for that little pig. But this new addition changed the end of that story. The big bad wolf tried to blow the brick house down and he started crying. Oh, there, he started crying. And so the little pig came out and said, oh, what's wrong? Why are you so sad? Well, they began to reform the big bad wolf. He became the big glad wolf because they got him involved with the local fair to blow up the balloons for the local fair. You know, that's where we are today. There's no one that's really evil these days. They're not evil. There's no evil people. They've just been misguided. They've just been misdirected. And we just need to encourage them, you know. Like someone sung this song a long time ago. Everything is beautiful in its own way. That is a lie straight from hell. Man apart from Jesus is a depraved soul. He's wicked, wicked to the core. I'm not saying you might, you may not display wickedness to the, like an Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein, but I'm telling you what, Jesus comes and he saves us. We are vile sinners and thank God for his mercy. Now here's what the devil does. The devil seeks to defile and corrupt your devotion to the Lord. That's why over there in 1 John, where John talks about the love of God, he said something like this, in 1 John 5, He said, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. Listen, John speaks a whole lot about love, love for God. Always was puzzled a little bit as I read the Bible that last verse in 1st John chapter 5 At first as I read that it seemed like it wasn't connected to everything he was talking about But now I understand I believe it is here's what he says the very last verse he says this little children Keep yourselves from idols What is an idol? An idol can be most anything. that draws your heart away from your pure devotion to Christ and the devil will seek to put idols everywhere. The heart is like an idol factory. It will come up with all kinds of things and delights and to charm you and to corrupt you and to dilute your devotion and your commitment to the Lord Jesus. Watch about idols. It could be most anything. So the first thing we see here, love must be sincere and discriminating. Then he said this, hold fast or cleave to that which is good. The word cleave, the Greek word for cleave is actually glue. It's probably stronger than Elmer's glue. It's probably like some of that stuff, you know, you put a little few drops, you ain't taking it out. That Gorilla Glue. Whole fats cling to that, which is good. And that's what we need to concentrate. We need to be discriminating. Well, you do it all the time. You go to the grocery store and you see some apples. Well, there's some rotten apples and there's some good apples. I think I will Make a choice. I will discriminate between the rotten and I will choose the good apple rather than the rotten apple. That's discriminating. You abhor what is evil. You cling to what is good. And young adults need to be very careful with relationships. There are some relationships that are not good. I mean, get away from that. Choose, make good choices and choose what is good. And hold fast to that which is good. Have good habits. Hold to good habits. Good attitudes. All the devil, he'll work hard to give you a nasty attitude. He'll work hard to have only a good attitude. Christ honoring habits, all the good things of the Lord. Now let's go to verse 10. How does love function? Now we're gonna look at nine things here. I don't know if we're gonna have time to look at every one of them. We're gonna look at these nine ways that love works. And the first one on the list in verse 10 is this. Love one another with brotherly affection. That is, be kindly affectionate. one to another with brotherly love. Now the word brotherly affection is very important here. Brotherly affection is the love that you have for your fellow, your family members. Brotherly, that's what brotherly affection is. And someone said it this way, how we as a Christian should love others in the family of God, it's like this. Love the brothers in the faith, as you love brothers in blood. Love the brethren in the faith as you love brethren in blood. And he says, be kindly affectionate. That word kindly, you had the word kin, K-I-N, that's kin, folks, that means family. And so when it comes to the body of Christ, we are to have the same affection for those brothers and sisters in Christ, just like you do for your family members. Then number two, verse 10, he says, prefer one another. That is, outdo one another in showing honor. In honor, preferring one another. And so you give honor to someone else. You pick out something they're doing and say, you know what, I want to pay you a compliment. I want to thank you and I just want to honor you because you're doing great and I appreciate what you did. I appreciate what you said and I appreciate that act of kindness that you expressed toward so and so or even to us. I just want to give honor where honor is due. And that's what is so needed. And Paul said this in Philippians 2, 3. He says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look onto the interest of others, not onto your own interests, but to the interest of others. So the thing is, by nature, this is the way we are. By nature, we love to be made much of. We're that by human nature. And we might hide that and let no one know. No, I don't want nobody to know. But by nature, we love to be made much of. You remember reading about the disciples, they had a discussion among themselves, who's the greatest? Man, I think I'm smarter than you, John. John and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they had this quibble about who's the greatest, you know. And what Jesus did, he got a little child and put in front of him and said, listen, if you want to be great, be humble, be like a little child. And so there's this thing about wanting to be made much of. Here's what happens. When the focus is on ourselves, we are in danger of becoming jealous of someone because someone was recognized. Well, I didn't get recognized. And I have to watch this because every once in a while I get some emails at work. Someone want to do a company-wide email about a certain staff person. Well, so-and-so, and they'll list their names, they've been working for 10 years. And we're going to congratulate them. Come on down to the HR department and get your 10-year reward. And who knows what that might be. But I was thinking one day as I was reading some of those emails, well, wait a minute. I've been working for 26 years. No one has ever invited me to come down to HR. And to get a reward, well, in fact, I did get a smoker that turned out it didn't work. And they didn't ask me down, I went down and got it myself. So anyway, okay, you see what I'm saying? A little bit of jealousy, didn't get recognized. Someone didn't, oh, I didn't get honored. Well, you know, so we have to watch out about that. And we have to be humble because the Bible says, humble yourself, the Lord will exalt you in due time. Just honor the Lord, the Lord take care of that. You know, don't worry about being recognized. Number three, verse 11. not slothful in business. That means do not be slothful in business or you're in zeal. Slothful. One translation goes like this, the literal translation, in regard to what you ought to be doing, don't be lazy. That's what he's talking about. In regard to what you ought to be doing, don't be lazy. Well, what's he talking about here? Our business of serving the Lord. The greatest business that we have as a Christian is this, is being a Christian. I mean, 24-7, we never clock out. Well, I'm gonna have to be a Christian now, it's Saturday night, and so I'm gonna hang out with the guys, and they're gonna kind of pull out the Budweiser, and we're gonna really have a big time, and we're gonna just, oh, no, we're to be a Christian 24-7. That's the business that God's called us to be. And we have to be like that, we are godly in our conduct and our behavior. And so we shouldn't be lazy. And we shouldn't be lazy as parents. God's given parents the responsibility to raise children up in the admonition and nurture of the Lord. You know this thing about raising children, you can't just switch and put it on autopilot and things will just kind of, no. I mean, you do that, it'll be like a neglected field. You let a field go, we let the backyard back here, if we just let it go, guess what? You're gonna have thorns and briars and wild stuff grow. If you neglect your children, that's exactly what will happen. So we have to be very busy about that, not be slothful. And then there's the business of making a living. And Colossians 3.23 says, whatever you do, whatever you do, work heartedly as for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward, you are serving the Lord Jesus. I mean, they're on the job. Who you work for? Sometimes we forget that, don't we? I don't like who I'm working for. We're working for the Lord. We're here where we are, wherever God has placed us. And if you're praying to get moved to another situation, may the Lord allow that to happen. But in the meantime, we're serving the Lord. And so our reward will come from him. Number four, look at verse 11. Be fervent in spirit. Fervent, look at that word fervent. The word fervent means to boil, boil. Or someone says bubbling over. Now, some of us by nature are not that kind. Some people got that bubbling over kind of personality. You know, when they come into the room, it lights up, you know. Sometimes I feel like when I come around, the lights go off. But some people got that by nature, they just bubble over, you know, bubbling over. I'm talking about people not even know the Lord. They just got that kind of a nature. But even us who are kind of timid and backward, you know, we just, you know, we're kind of in the back in the shadows. In the depths of our spirit, where the Holy Spirit lives, Let's let that spirit boil, bubbling over, be fervent in spirit. One translation says this, be aglow with the spirit. And that puts a capital S, it says a Holy Spirit. It could be your spirit. It could be also the Holy Spirit. I think both work there. And I think the key here is to be filled with the Spirit, the Bible says, and that's the only way to do that. Number five, verse 11, serving the Lord. And this goes together with being fervent in the Spirit. Serving the Lord, it ties in with that, because you could be aglow in the Spirit, and you could be bubbling over, and you could be all wound up, I guess, and you might forget who you're serving. Listen, it's all about serving the Lord. We have to remember as we pray. Thy kingdom come, Lord. It's not my kingdom come. It's not about me. It's Thy will be done. Not my will be done, but Thy will be done. It's all about Him. And I think it's possible for Christians to come to church. They can come to church and they can sing hymns and sing songs and they can talk about Jesus a little bit. And then they can leave and throughout the week they can forget about who they really are serving. Who are they really serving? They can forget about what it's all about. And Jesus said this in Luke 6 verse 46. He says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you do not do what I say? I mean, you might give the appearance of being fervent in spirit. You might give all that appearance outwardly. And he said, you call me Lord, Lord, but you do not do what I say. And so we got to make sure that we are truly serving the Lord and we're not trying to impress people and let people know Pretend that we're something we're not. Verse 12, rejoicing in hope. Hope, thank God for the hope that we have. Paul said in Titus, in Titus chapter two and verse 13, he said this, waiting for, we're waiting for our blessed hope. the appearing, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. I mean, that's our great hope. Now listen, if your hope is in this world, I mean, if your attitude here is to find joy and rejoicing in things here in this life, It's good to a certain extent, but listen, if that's all you've got, there'll be a great disappointment. Because earthly treasures and earthly delights will soon fade away. But the Christian has a hope in heaven. And that's our great hope that we have. John talks about this in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2. Let me read it to you, he says, 1 John 3 and verse 2, he says, beloved, we are God's children right now. And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we should be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. We have this hope. Paul talked about 1 Thessalonians 5 and 8, that this hope is the helmet of our salvation. See, the devil seeks to attack your mind, but we need to keep our head on straight. I mean, the world is falling apart. I don't know if you realize it, it's falling apart. And, but we have a hope in heaven. You know these people talking about, listen, we gotta get serious about our environment, global warming, this Earth is, oh, it's just gone crazy, we gotta take care of Mother Earth. Well, the Bible says that God's gonna take care of Mother Earth. I don't like to use that word, and I won't use that word no more, but God will take care of the Earth. What's he gonna do? He's gonna make a brand new Earth. This earth is polluted with sin. You know how many landfills is on earth? You think God's gonna put all his redeem on our earth when you start digging in the ground? Well, there's some old razors. Razor blades. Where'd them come from? They'll start digging the ground. Well, there's an old tricycle been buried right down there. It's rusted. It's all rusted down. Well, there's an old Model T right there. Well, they look in the ground. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, that's going to be gone. Nothing of the past. A brand new heaven and a brand new earth. And as far as we're talking about global warming, wait till God turns the heat up. He is going to melt the earth with fervent heat. You're talking about boiling. He's going to burn it up. So what are we going to do? You're in Jesus. Our salvation is in Jesus. And then when God makes that brand new heaven, brand new earth, he'll put us right on it. Okay. That's, I love that subject, but we'll move on. Rejoicing in hope, rejoicing in hope. And we gotta be careful because there's some things in life we get all excited about, just like the disciples. They went out one day, Jesus sent them out. I want you to go out and teach my word. I want you to preach my word. I want you to heal the sick and I want you to cast out devils. They went out and they teach and they healed people. And the disciples came back and they said, Lord, it is so exciting. Man, we're seeing demons coming out of people. And Jesus said, don't rejoice because of that. Rejoice because your name is written in heaven. We rejoice in hope. That's where our rejoicing is. That's where our joy is. And then he says, patient in affliction, patient in tribulation. Jesus already said in the world, you're going to have tribulation. John 16, verse 33. We're going to have it. Don't get discouraged. We've seen that Romans 8, 28. All things work together for good for those who are in Christ Jesus. All things work together for good. Don't get discouraged. God's gonna work it all out. I remember one day, Paul had a little thorn in the flesh. I don't know what it was, exactly what that thorn in the flesh. He went to the Lord in prayer. Oh God, please remove this thorn in the flesh. You know, you could have all kinds of thorns in the flesh. Is there just one thing you're thinking about? Lord, if you just remove this, I think I could serve you better. Lord, if you could just take this out of my situation, I think I could serve you better. But here's what God said to Paul. I'm not taking it. I'm not removing it. Be patient in tribulation, but I tell you what I will do. My grace, my grace is sufficient for you, Paul. I'll give you the grace to walk through it. And so we do that and then verse 12. Continuing instant in prayer, constant in prayer. The key word is continuing. Do you ever get discouraged in prayer? Oh, just keep on praying. Well, I don't, I can't pray beautiful words. God's not listening for beautiful words. Well, I can't pray a long prayer. Well, God's not, he's not interested in long prayers. Just talk to God from the bottom of your heart. Ask and it shall, you shall find. Seek and you shall find. Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. That's the teaching of prayer. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. Just stay at the business of praying. And you say, well, I just don't feel like praying. I just don't feel like God's anywhere. Just go to God and say, God, I don't feel like you're anywhere. Just start right there. I don't feel anything. God, here's my prayer today. I don't feel anything. Just pray. Just keep talking. Keep talking. And you have to get somewhere to do that. And so that's very important. And then verse 13 he says, Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. We are to distribute to the necessity of the saints. given to hospitality, two things right here. Number one, share with people who are in need. And then number two, practice hospitality. This is a cold world today, a selfish world. And it should be where people practice hospitality is from God's people, the saints of God. Now, contributing to the needs of the saints, it may not be a financial situation, it may just be there, hey, I'm here, I'm thinking of you, I'm praying for you, concerned about you, and showing your concern, grieving with those who are grieving, and just be there to let them know that you're there and be of help in any way you can. And Jesus made a comment about that in Matthew 25. For those who help those who are hungry, those who are in prison, a wisdom. He says, you've done it to me as you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. And this is the way we practice. This is practical Christianity, honoring one another, preferring one another, serving the Lord as we serve one another. Hello, this is Pastor Chris Gown. Thank you for listening to the broadcast. We hope the message was helpful and edifying. If you're not a follower of Christ and you want to learn more about the Christian life, please contact us through this website. We would love to respond to your questions. For now, may our Lord bless you and yours with his amazing love and abounding grace. Goodbye.